Free Rise of the Dunamy by James R. Landrum Page A

o’clock. This went on for the remainder of the day.
    Sofia hardly noticed when Bishop finally returned from whatever ridiculous escapade he had gone on without her. He, on the other hand, was paying plenty of attention to how much busy work Sofia was doing.
    “What are you doing?” He asked in a very puzzled tone as he passed in front of her desk. Sofia snapped her head up at him, and looked almost shocked to see him. She had been running through all of the possibilities that the night could hold in her mind, focusing so much on them that she had all but forgotten where she was.
    “Oh, you’re back! Sorry, I was just kind of zoned in on this stuff I guess.” Sofia returned to her paperwork, not wanting to miss a second of mental preparation for her date.
    “What case are you doing that for? Did you close something today?” Bishop knew all too well what Sofia’s routine was, and found her current actions highly peculiar.
    “Oh, nothing. I mean, no. I mean, it’s not for anything in particular, and no I didn’t close anything. I was just trying to get ahead. I’m just trying to get my head straight so we can figure this thing out.” This was entirely true, although not her main reason for doing the ridiculous task.
    Bishop remained bewildered by Sofia’s break from her usual routine, but decided to let it go since she wasn’t hounding him about where he had gone or what they could do next to further the case. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, Bishop began quietly checking his desk to see if anything was out of place. The only explanation that he could think of for Sofia’s odd behavior was that she was about to play a practical joke on him and was trying not to alert him to what was about to happen. After searching every possible place that could have been sabotaged, Bishop decided to check with one of the other detectives to see what information he could come up with. Walking over to Detective Welsh’s desk, Bishop sat down on the edge with his back facing Sofia.
    “Hey.” Bishop muttered with a nod, interrupting the middle-aged detective’s review of one of his current case files. The deep, permanent creases in Welsh’s face intensified as his brow furrowed into his normal scowl. He was known to be quick tempered, especially when interrupted. Bishop, however, had a bad habit of not caring about that sort of thing; especially when he outweighed Welsh by thirty pounds.
    “What?” Welsh asked angrily, shaking his head a bit to make his aggravation clear.
    “Any idea what she’s up to?” Bishop asked, nodding his head back towards Sofia’s desk, and completely disregarding Welsh’s attempts to drive him off.
    “Looks like she’s working, Bishop; just like I was trying to do. Maybe you should try it.” He replied gruffly. “It’s funny how much detective work you want to do when it comes to seeing what your partner is up to; but how little you want to do on your cases.”
    Continuing to ignore Welsh’s frustrated comments, Bishop’s questioning of Sofia’s actions persisted.
    “She’s doin’ busy work. She never does busy work when we’re workin’ a case like this. How long has she been at it?”
    “I don’t know, ever since she got back a little while ago, I guess. Why don’t you just go ask her?” Detective Welsh replied with an exasperated sigh before turning his back to Bishop entirely as he attempted to return to his own work.
    Bishop took a second to think about where she would have gone and remembered what she had said before he left. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he put everything together. Bishop nearly burst out in laughter as he watched Sofia mindlessly filling out needless paperwork. He could tell that she was nervous, but rather than pester her and possibly get her started on something that might keep him there late, he just went back to his desk and found his own project to waste time on. The two worked quietly for the remainder of the day, Sofia